I think its absolutely retarded for people to plunk down any money for a product that doesn't have an official release date. My guess is, Valve will officially annouce ( and I don't mean by i heard from here, or even the steamforums itself) the pricing and methods of order, once they get everything sorted out and the ball actually moving. Till then, they will play it on the safe side and not saying anything.. They are in a legal battle, and I'd imagine their lawyers are ordering them to not say anything at all, so there's absolutely no chance of legal problems.

Remember, there has been no official annoucenment saying CS : S will be available soon. (and don't point me to that mod post) The front page of valve, Vu, and maybe the frontpage of steampowered/Steam interface, with an official press release, is the only official sources. Anything else is rumor or speculation, no matter who they say its from! The internet is great at taking rumor, speculation, missinformation, and spreading it into "fact".

I already think its crazy for paying full in preorders, when the store knows a physical truck is arriving on that day.. Putting down a small amount, like $5 makes sense in this situation though, because you are basically guaranteeing a spot on the next SCHEDULED shipment.